The first thing that came to mind when doing this topic, was
none other than PlasticBieber. One word: TROLL. At the height of her trolling, she
told everyone she was an 11 year old ‘Belieber’ (that is die hard Justin Bieber
fan for those living under a rock) that basically insulted everyone that wasn't Justin Bieber, in particular the boys of One Direction. Her twitter has now
been deleted, mind you after racking up something like 77,000 followers. But I
managed to find this screenshot of some of her tweets. It’s a little cut off,
but you get the idea.
It turns out, the girl, Jessica, is actually an 18 year old
girl that really doesn't care much for Justin Bieber and just did it for a
laugh. The point I’m trying to make is, for a considerable amount of time,
nobody actually knew who this girl was, they just knew her as PlasticBieber,
her twitter name. She was anonymous. Would she have said those same things if
she had to have her full name posted, a picture of her (her display picture was
Justin Bieber)? Probably not.
This also brings light to the concept of cyberbullying.
Whilst, majority of her tweets were directed at celebrities, there was also a
lot of racist and other discriminatory tweets. Had twitter been moderated then,
it’s highly likely that she would have gotten banned from the site…maybe that’s
what happened when they started moderating, who knows. But the point I’m trying
to make here is that pretty much the entire purpose of her twitter was to bully
people, whether they be famous or regular people. With computer mediated
communication, things like this become so much easier, because there is very
little consequence.
I have commented on your post in my blog, the reason why I didn't post it here is so I could upload a photo (i couldn't figure out how to do it in a comment lol). Here's a link if you would like to see what I wrote:
ReplyDeletehttp://lnaumovski.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/week-10-tales-of-twitter-world.html
The example you mentioned in yours was one mentioned in the group presentation for this week and I really like how you linked it to presentation of self. I never really thought how these 'trolls' are in one sense losing face, but to themselves, it seems like they don't think they are because they almost seem proud of it. Thanks for your comment :)
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how many people do change their identities or remain anonymous and then start bullying people on the internet, do you think they do it because they're bored with their day to day life, or actually legitimately have those feelings? A lot of the time it seems as though people are just doing it for a bit of entertainment.. but in a lot of cases, go way too far.
ReplyDeleteyeah, I agree. especially when I see hate on things like twitter about stuff people post, it's like unfollow them dude, so obviously theyre just bored. thanks for the comment
DeleteGood job Natalie, I cannot say it any better. I completely agree, I doubt Jessica would have had the assertiveness to say the things she did had she not held anonymity. Not only anonymous in her name but in her profile picture, like you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteWhat got me thinking though, was despite this anonymity, like Goffman points out in the reading, that people in this backstage online community connect with one another because of their shared interests. Therefore, they maintain and share this “community of fate” (p. 322).
I just thought it would be interesting to link what you were saying about the concept of anonymity to what Goffman was terming “community of fate.” If I am interpreting it correctly I really enjoy and agree with this idea that people who interact in these cyber communities (whether it be Facebook or twitter) are all well aware of the possibility of people fronting someone they are not. Despite this knowledge of the ability to fabricate the truth, people continue to interact and use these sites knowing that everything on the other end can be completely false.
However, I also agree that people use these spaces as a strategic way to put on some kind of performance. Like you pointed out, Jessica took advantage of twitter to express that she really does not care for Justin Bieber at all. With Jessica being 18, we assume she affiliates with a group of people that are true “Beliebers.”
Perhaps Jessica truly does not like Bieber and articulates this in a more appropriate space where she knows she does not have to worry about maintaining face. She knows she does not have to hold her tongue. She can be her back stage self in a front stage region. Twitter is Jessica’s online, free from secrets, simultaneously engaging via front stage and back stage behavior.
Reference:
Ross, Drew. 2007. “Backstage with the Knowledge Boys and Girls: Goffman and Distributed Agency in an Organic Online Community.” Organization Studies vol. 28, no. 03: pp. 307–325.